If a child you don't know appears on your doorstep and asks to spend the night, what would you do? Likely you would ask his name, where he lives, find out why he is roaming the streets, and contact his parents. On the other hand, if a youngster enters your house escorted by your child, that child is welcome.
The same is true with God. By becoming friends with the Son, we gain access to the Father. Jesus promised in Matthew 10:32, "All those who stand before others and say they believe in me, I will say before my Father in heaven that they belong to me." Jesus ushers us into that blessing of God's grace we now enjoy and what Paul spoke of in Romans 5:2-"a permanent access by faith into this grace by which we now stand." We can have a place with God because Jesus has presented us to the Father!
From In the Grip of Grace
Mark 5:21-43
Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman
When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 Overhearing[a] what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Footnotes:
Mark 5:36 Or Ignoring
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, September 22, 2014
Read: Galatians 1:6-10
No Other Gospel
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Insight
Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia addresses Christians who were being persuaded to return to a lifestyle that sought to earn God’s favor through good deeds and obedience to the law of Moses. Today’s passage is part of the introduction to the letter. In these few verses, Paul introduces the topics that will be covered in the rest of the letter, provides the reason this should be of interest to the reader, and establishes his own authority to address the topic. Paul will be writing about the true gospel of Christ (vv.6-9), and the reader should pay attention to his words because he is the bondservant of Christ (v.10). Anyone who preaches another message is “accursed” (vv.8-9).
Repeat Warnings
By Dave Branon
I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel. —Galatians 1:6
“Caution, the moving walkway is ending. Caution, the moving walkway is ending.” If you’ve ever used an automated walkway at an airport, you’ve heard this kind of announcement repeatedly.
Why do airports repeat this announcement over and over? To ensure safety and to protect them from liability if someone were to be injured.
Repeated announcements can be annoying, but they do have value. As a matter of fact, the apostle Paul thought repeating a warning was so vital that he did it in the text of Galatians. But his statement had value far beyond the danger of tripping at the airport. Paul warned them not to listen to, nor believe, him or an angel from heaven if they preached “any other gospel” than what they had already heard (1:8). In the next verse, Paul said it again. It was a warning worth repeating. The Galatians had begun to believe that their salvation was dependent on good works instead of the true gospel: faith in Christ’s work.
The gospel of Jesus—His death, burial, and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins—is the story that we have the privilege and responsibility to share. When we present the gospel, let’s share that the risen Jesus is the only solution to the problem of sin.
He is the way, the truth, the life—
That One whose name is Jesus;
There is no other name on earth
That has the power to save us. —Sper
Only one road leads to heaven— Jesus Christ is the way.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 22, 2014
The Missionary’s Master and Teacher
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am . . . . I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master . . .—John 13:13, 16
To have a master and teacher is not the same thing as being mastered and taught. Having a master and teacher means that there is someone who knows me better than I know myself, who is closer than a friend, and who understands the remotest depths of my heart and is able to satisfy them fully. It means having someone who has made me secure in the knowledge that he has met and solved all the doubts, uncertainties, and problems in my mind. To have a master and teacher is this and nothing less— “. . . for One is your Teacher, the Christ . . .” (Matthew 23:8).
Our Lord never takes measures to make me do what He wants. Sometimes I wish God would master and control me to make me do what He wants, but He will not. And at other times I wish He would leave me alone, and He does not.
“You call Me Teacher and Lord . . .”— but is He? Teacher, Master, and Lord have little place in our vocabulary. We prefer the words Savior, Sanctifier, and Healer. The only word that truly describes the experience of being mastered is love, and we know little about love as God reveals it in His Word. The way we use the word obey is proof of this. In the Bible, obedience is based on a relationship between equals; for example, that of a son with his father. Our Lord was not simply God’s servant— He was His Son. “. . . though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience. . .” (Hebrews 5:8). If we are consciously aware that we are being mastered, that idea itself is proof that we have no master. If that is our attitude toward Jesus, we are far away from having the relationship He wants with us. He wants us in a relationship where He is so easily our Master and Teacher that we have no conscious awareness of it—a relationship where all we know is that we are His to obey.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 22, 2014
Energy or Fat - #7226
Now, let me make clear, I didn't participate in World War II, but I've been told that they gave American soldiers more than bullets to support them when they went into combat. They gave them a chocolate bar. It makes a lot of sense, actually, when you think about needing a sugar rush when they've got to have all that energy for the battle ahead. And maybe that's not all bad. Of course if you did it to a man as he's about to fall on the couch and take a nap, that might be bad. That's the funny thing about sugar. You eat it and you exercise, boom, it's energy! You eat it and you just lie there, it's fat.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Energy or Fat."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Joshua 1:8. We're looking at this because God has a lot of overweight kids because there's no conversion. When I say overweight, I'm not talking about physical pounds. When I say conversion, I'm not talking about being born into God's family. Spiritually, too many of us are loading up on spiritual food but not converting it into action.
Which is why we're looking at Joshua 1:8, "Do not let this book of the Law (the Bible) depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." Okay, God says, "I want you to meditate on this." Actually the Hebrew word here is chewing like a cow chews their food; over and over and over again. In the original Hebrew, it's actually "chew it until you're ready to digest it." He says, "I want you to think about it, okay. And then I want you to talk about it. I want it to be in your mind. I want it to be in your mouth. Don't let it depart from your mouth." And then He says, "All this is so you will do something because of what you read." I want it to be in your life!
So you don't just study God's Word to get smarter spiritually and to know something. Every time you pick up this book, you're supposed to do something; live different because of it. Now, most of us get a lot of great Bible teaching. I mean, you've got sermons to watch and listen to, Bible studies, CDs, DVDs, books, seminars, and radio programs. You know what? You can have a notebook full of Bible notes, and you can have a life that's spiritually empty of any real change in your relationships, your finances, very little change in your pet sin, or your attitude, your temper, your pride, your complaining.
Now, why is it that North American Christians are so well fed and yet we seem so spiritually powerless when you compare us to like third world Christians who don't have all of this? Could it be that we're just hearing it, we're filing it and we're not applying it? Are we just letting it turn into spiritual fat? And then there are people in situations where they have to put it immediately to work. They're living on it, living for it. They're living it. We need exercise!
That means you study the Bible to find out what God is saying about a particular issue. But you don't let it stop there. No, you say, "Now, what should I do differently today because He said this?" Keep a journal. Write down and process what He said to you, and then what you say to Him that you're going to do that day because of what He said to you through His Word. Writing it down actually takes the abstract and it makes it concrete; it's like right there in front of you.
See, when it comes to the Bible, we've got a lot of information; not nearly so much application. We're storing all kinds of Bible information and yet it's turning into fat. But when you make it a daily discipline to put the verse to work as soon as you can, it turns into a lot of spiritual energy that will enable you to live more powerfully than you've ever lived before.
